Dodge Automobile - History
The Dodge Brothers began building their own automobiles in 1914 .
John and Horace Dodge had a reputation for perfection in their machine shop and had been making engines and other parts for auto makers from 1900 . Olds Motor Vehicle Company was one of their customers . When Henry Ford opened Ford Motor Company , he hire the Dodge Brothers to build many parts for his automobiles . The Dodge Brothers acquired 10% of Henry’s new company as part payment for their parts . This would eventually make them very rich . The brother had a strong desire to manufacture their own automobiles . Though they began selling their Dodge Model 30 in in 1914 , the Dodge Brothers still help 10% of Ford Motor Company until 1916 .
By then the Dodge Brothers automobiles were second in sales only to Henry Ford’s . they were receiving about 1 Million dollars a year from Henry until 1916 when Henry bought their shares of his company for 25 million dollars .
Dodge Brothers automobiles remained second in sales to Ford until , 1920 . The US Army and Poncho Villa of Mexico were among the Dodge Brothers customers . The Dodge Brother were also leaders in light truck manufacture during that time . In January on 1920 John Dodge died of pneumonia and in December of that same year Horace died from cirrhosis . The company was left to their wives , who hired a long time company employee to manage the company .
Sales slowly declined after the passing of the Dodge Brothers , and by 1925 they had dropped to 5th in sales and the company was sold to Dillon Reed & Co. for 146 million Dollars which was a record transaction for that time . Sales dropped to 7th by 1927 . In 1928 Walter Chrysler acquired Dodge in a stock exchange deal of some 170 million dollars .
Dodge still is a very big part of the Chrysler Corporation today .
The Dodge Brothers first automobiles used all steel bodies were most were steel over wood framing at that time . They also used a 12 volt electrical systems . Most other companies used 6 volt until the 1950’s . Sliding gear manual transmissions were used when others still use planetary transmissions . (Today automatic transmissions use planetary gear systems and manual transmission use sliding gears ).
Dodge is close to electric car production too .
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Dodge is a big piece of the future of the Chrysler Corporation
Also see the Dodge Brothers on ,
